Although the Strip does have a lock on our high-end and gourmet restaurants, the rest of Las Vegas is hardly a desert when it comes to serious culinary experiences.

No, we don't all eat at buffets. No, we don't eat French molecular gastronomy or prime rib all the time. No, we'd rather not go to the Strip if we don't have to. Although the Strip does have a lock on our high-end and gourmet restaurants, the rest of Las Vegas is hardly a desert when it comes to serious culinary experiences. With a car and a trusty GPS, you'll be able to eat like a well-versed (and hungry) local.

Even hipsters deserve good Thai food. The menu at this tiny hole-in-the wall (with a heated, screened-in patio in the back) is concise, keeping things easy, but you'll be completely surprised by what you thought were your old favorites. Familiar options such as pad Thai and curries aren't the sickly sweet, Americanized versions that you find in your regular neighborhood Thai joint. Here the pad Thai is actually a nuanced, well-balanced mix of salty, sour and a little sweet, close to what you'd actually get from a hawker stall in Bangkok. Other menu items are just as enlightening.

Settled just a block away from the bright lights of the tourist-heavy Fremont Street experience, Le Thai often has a line out the door made up of the artist and hipster industry types who call Downtown Vegas home. Fortunately Le Thai recently started taking reservations for dinner.

Pull up a chair and get comfortable. Helmed by Las Vegas culinary power couple Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla – she's a longtime restaurant consultant, he's the former chef of Society at Encore – Honey Salt was always intended to be an extension of the hospitality they'd show in their own home. They had already spent plenty of time building restaurant empires on the Strip, so they decided to build something in their community for their neighbors and friends.

The farm-to-table menu consists of favorite, comfort dishes they routinely served to their close friends and family at dinner parties, including fried chicken, a New England fry made with Ipswich clams, and a classic backyard burger topped with beehive cheddar. Honey Salt's Summerlin location may be a bit of a jaunt from the Strip, but once there, you'll feel right at home.

Yes, this is still Las Vegas. Nestled within the residential community of Desert Shores, Marche Bacchus, part wine bar, part French bistro, is one of the few spots where you might forget all about the Strip. Vegas locals flock to the restaurant's lakeside patio for classic French fare such as house made pâté, escargot persillade swimming in garlic butter and duck confit cassoulet. Observe a little slice of Sin City from this cute spot: ladies who lunch, live jazz, and plenty of oenophiles. The attached wine shop has one of the most carefully curated collections in town, and if you'd like to drink a bottle with your meal, it's only $10 above the cost in the store.

As in any decent food city, there's where the locals eat and then there's where the chefs eat. Both dine at this Japanese restaurant. Instead of creating a sushi joint, Chef Mitsuo Endo's forte is on the grill, heated with intense lump charcoal. Foodies in-the-know show up during dinner hours. Come midnight or so, when the other kitchens close, the Strip chefs come in for the creamy, cold tofu that's made in-house (best drizzled with some soy sauce), grilled bits such as Kurobuta pork cheek or Kobe beef filet, and udon noodles in a foie gras custard soup. You definitely need reservations, even late night if you want to rub elbows with some of Vegas' best culinary talent.